Little Box of Horrors
by YAY13
Summary: A new pupil has just joined the school and brought with her a box. Inside the box is her greatest fears and they're trying to get out.
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone. I'm afraid I don't own any of the X-men. I wish I did.

"He doesn't have to be real. You control if he's real." Maria Hunter told her little girl, working her hands into her daughter's.

At first the child didn't react. She didn't take her mother's hands. Then, slowly, Maria's hands were enclosed in a gentle grip which grew and grew until the little girl's knuckles were going white. The girl was studying the drawing in the centre of the room. She was struggling to look away. Maria raised one hand to her daughter's damp cheek and pressed gently agaisnt the tears, getting her daughter's attention. Kathy looked at her mother with her red ringed blue eyes.

"Sweetie, he's not real." Maria whispered to her daughter.

Kathy blinked and calmed down. She took a deep breath.

Shaken, Maria pressed one hand against her daughter's forehead. It had happened before with a wolf, a drawing that Kathy had done. The eight year old had been crying and screaming about it being real, about it having chased her around the living room which had been left in tatters. And Kathy had got cuts – cuts she claimed her been from the wolf.

Maria had dealt with the drawing of the wolf in one way. She was going to deal with this new drawing in the same way. She walked towards a piece of paper on the floor. There was a picture of a tall male vampire glaring out at Maria, reaching out as if it was going after her. She couldn't understand why Kathy would draw something so terrifying. She frowned and went to tear it up.

"No, mummy! That's murder!" Kathy screamed.

Maria looked at her daughter as she held up the drawing. The eight year old was still shuddering from terror. She was sweating and crying and holding her covers up to her chin. Kathy's small form was pressed in the corner of the room as she was curled up on her bed. She wasn't calming down.

Yet the conviction in the little girl's voice had been so strong. Maria was almost sure that Kathy believed the drawing was real and that it would be murder.

Then Maria had an idea. She walked up to the cupboard and opened the door. A large wooden crate-like box was on the bottom shelf. It had been used to send a few dolls from Maria's brother in Australia to Kathy but the dolls had quickly been abandoned when the young girl had fallen in love with art. The box was taken out and placed on the little girl's bed. Maria opened the box, turning the key that was already in the lock. She put the picture in the box and closed it, locking it. She took the key and shifted towards her daughter.

Silently, she handed Kathy the key and then reached into her pocket. She found a length of string and threaded it through the eye of the key hole. She run it around her daughter's neck, tied it there and lifted the key up to the girl's eyes. Kathy took the key from her mother and held it, studying it.

"This means that only you can say what goes in and what comes out of the box and if the drawings are real like you say they are then... You put them in there."

.

Eight years later, the three metal prongs of the key clicked as they slid into the lock. The wooden lid swung open. Inside was a pile of drawings. These drawings were expertly done, each one laboured over and in perfect condition.

The box however was not.

Dulled marks in the wood caught blue eyes and glared back. They brought old threats and fear resurfacing. Along the rim of the lid, fresh sections of wood had been broken away in an attempt to get out. With an internal shudder, the girl noticed new hungry claw marks on the inside of the wooden lid. It looked like a wild animal had been trying to escape. With shaking fingers, she traced her fingers into the deep, fresh canyons on the inside of the lid.

Fifty-six pieces of paper were inside the box, the top one being a brilliant drawing depicting a snarling clown with one hand wrapped tightly around the string of a balloon and the other reaching out with grasping angry fingers and chipped nails. With the wood that was caught under the points, it looked as if the clown had been clawing away at something wooden. The snarl was half open as if the clown had been calling out. The eyes were focused on Kathy with a heartless hunger.

Kathy knew she hadn't draw him like that. She had drawn a picture of a smiling happy clown with both hands by his sides and... Then he had turned bad.

She had quickly banished him to the box before anyone knew that she had drawn yet another bad drawing. Her parents understood that she had been right... That some how her drawings, and later even other people's drawings, became real if Kathy willed them to. They had understood that most of Kathy's drawings were good. They had often watched at the girl had played with the real life copies of her drawings and watched as the girl found friendship. Yet both parents knew what happened to some of Kathy's drawings. The horror and terror that they brought. Like the wolf. Like the vampire.

Her family didn't know how bad it had gotten.

Kathy looked away from the box of drawings, not even reaching into the box to touch them. She focused on the empty shredder that had been put in her room five years ago. It had never been used, much to the disappointment of her parents. For a few seconds she reached into the box to shred the drawings. She stopped and looked down, shaking her head. A tear growing in Kathy's eyes, she flipped the lid back over and turned the key to shut the box.

Kathy sat on the floor of her room, staring at the box. She couldn't take her eyes off it, feeling her heartbeat return to normal as the danger from within was now locked safely away. Around her, drawings of smiling happy people were on her wardrobe. Piles of papers and pencil pots were on the desk to her side and folders of drawings that the walls didn't have space for were pressed into a corner. None of these had ever caused Kathy any concern so her eyes were fixed on the box in front of her as she struggled to work out what the next step was. She couldn't live with the constant threat of...

Then there was a knock on the door. Quickly, in a panic, Kathy pushed the box back into the corner near her cupboard and pulled a cover over it to muffle any noises that might come from it.

Her parents didn't know how bad it had gotten.

She opened the door and looked down at the blonde little boy who was standing in the hallway. His curly hair was slightly off blonde but he had the same blue eyes as his sister. He smiled up at her, giving her the joyful smile only a six year old could manage. It radiated energy and it made up, in a way, for the time Kathy had spent laying in bed, listening for... Them.

Kathy smiled, recognising her little brother, Tommy, instantly. She opened the door wider to let him in and he walked over to sit on the bed.

"Have you drawn another picture, Kathy?" Tommy asked, playing with him thumbs.

"Not yet, Tom." she said with a sigh.

She had lied. She had drawn him the picture of the clown. She wasn't going to risk giving it to Tommy.

"And there's this man downstairs and mummy and daddy are talking about you going away."

"WHAT?" Kathy shrieked, suddenly becoming very nervous.

Kathy's mind raced at a hundred miles an hour. She knew she was dangerous but no one had been hurt, no one but her. They couldn't take her away, could they?

And Kathy realised she had slipped. She calmed down with the pressure of appearances upon her.

Tommy didn't know how bad it had gotten.

Matching eyes met and Tommy stood up, running up to his older sister. He wrapped his arms around her waist Kathy frowned and began to pat Tommy on the back.

He didn't like loud noises or Kathy when she got panicked.

"I don't want you to go!" Tommy moaned. "They might hurt you because of your magic!"

She told him everything would be alright and that she wasn't going to go anywhere she wasn't going to be safe.

"And it's not magic, Tommy." Kathy said, taking her little brother's hand and leading the way down the stairs.

She closed her bedroom door but the girl's panic hung in the air. From under the cover, inside the box, a voice rose up.

"Kathy? Kathy? Are you there, little Kathy?"

No one knew how bad it had gotten.

.

There were two strange men in the lounge, not just one. One was a bald man sitting in a stylish wheelchair. His eyes shifted to concern when he saw Kathy. The other man was younger and had red tinted lenses over his eyes. The fact that this meant she couldn't see his eyes put Kathy on edge.

"That's the man I saw before." Tommy hissed, pointing at the man with the red lenses.

Kathy was told to take a seat on the brown leather couch by her mother but nervousness meant the girl hung back. She stood and studied the two men. She looked around the room and her eyes landed on the large painting hanging on the wall. It was a painting of a series of dark brown birds birds and Kathy knew that, if she lost control of her powers, the birds could be a big problem.

"Katherine..." the bald man began.

"Kathy." the teenager corrected before she knew what she was going. "It's just Kathy."

She was never called Katherine. Although that was her full name, she had never liked it.

"My apologises." the bald man said. "Kathy, we believe you are a very special, very gifted, young lady."

Kathy paused the man by asking who he was. Tommy was still clinging to her side and her parents were still in the room so Kathy would rather not find out what the men worked for a mutant registration agency. She didn't want to have a fight.

"Once again I apologise, my name is Charles Xavier. I run a school for children such as yourself, for young people who have abilities like you do. This is m friend and colleague, Scott Summers. We believe you would benefit by joining our school."

Kathy looked at the two men. She studied each man with her artist's eye and then glanced at her parents. She didn't like spending time at home but she didn't want to go anywhere with anyone. Her eyes fell onto Tommy and she frowned.

Then she heard birdsong filling the lounge.

Her eyes snapped up to the painting and she saw the birds had disappeared. A bird was sitting on Scott's shoulder and Kathy winced. Scott looked at the bird with a frown. Kathy noticed the way his forehead creased as he stared at the bird but, in the corner of her eye, she realised Charles was smiling. The bird had long brown feathers and shifted about on Scott's shoulder. Another bird had landed near Tommy and the little boy was staring at it. He was used to Kathy's powers but, every time the girl made something suddenly appear, his youthfulness caused him to become mesmerised.

"That is very impressive. I could teach you to control it." Charles said.

Kathy thought about the box in her room. She thought about the horror her powers were causing.

"Prove you can do even some good." Kathy instructed.

Charles paused and Kathy freed herself from Tommy's arms. He looked at Kathy as she walked into the centre of the room.

_DO YOU FEEL YOU NEED MORE PROOF? _asked a voice in Kathy's head.

Kathy shuddered but understood. She had recognised Charles' voice in her head. She had never met a telepath before. She hadn't met anyone with powers before.

"Can I have some time to decide?"

.

Kathy lay in bedroom on her bed. It was the afternoon and her parents were downstairs talking to Charles and Scott. Tommy had gone off to play. The blinds were closed and she had her focus on the ceiling. She was making patterns from marks on the ceiling, her artistic mind forming detailed shapes and drawings.

"You know it's for your own good." a young man's voice said.

Kathy looked at the young man who had suddenly appeared in her room. She looked at the blank sheet of paper that was stuck to her wardrobe and sighed.

"I didn't want you to come out." Kathy told the young man.

The boy scoffed and sat down on the bed. He told Kathy she didn't really mean that. It was dark in the room as the light wasn't on but Kathy could make out the young man's figure.

He was sixteen like her and had a floppy mop of light brown hair. His keen eyes were green and dotted with flecks of brown. He was dressed in a white shirt and brown fabric trousers. Kathy could remember drawing him. He was one of the few drawings who hadn't been made while she had been drawing. She had dreamt about a boy called Danny. He had had a British accent and they had spent the whole dream having fun. She dreamt of him occasionally and had drawn him pretty soon after.

"I don't know why you're panicking. You want to go and you need to go." Danny said.

Kathy sat up and looked at the young man.

"I could send you back in your drawing, Danny. I should. I don't need you making this decision for me."

Danny sighed and helped Kathy sit up. They sat beside each other and studied the carpeted floor. Neither had anything to say to the other as they worked out what they were going to do. There was silence between the two. Finally Danny turned to Kathy.

"So you're going then?" Danny said with all the conviction in the world.

The teenaged girl looked at Danny and she looked at him questioningly. It was no secret that Danny knew Kathy better than anyone else. She had told him about how bad everything had gotten and what was in the box.

"What makes you think I'm going?" Kathy asked, with a slight smirk.

Her eyes were deadly serious. This was an issue of her future and effect not only her but all of her drawings and her family.

Danny nodded towards the covered box. He cupped his hands against his ears and smirked.

"Because they're silent."

The room hung with a deep and rare silence. Kathy walked forwards and pulled off the cover. She stared at the wooden material and toyed with the blanket in her hands. Not a single noise came from the box.

"And I know what that means. You're not nervous about this. You know you've made the right decision." Danny said with a smile.

Kathy looked at him and remembered drawing him. She had drawn him earlier that year and got on with him very well. He was one of the good drawings – no, one of the best ones. She wouldn't dare put him in the box.

"I hate you sometimes, Danny."

"And you love me the rest of time." he smirked. "Will you be taking the box?"

"The little box of horrors?" Kathy frowned and looked at the covered box.

She wanted to be rid of it. She wanted it to be gone from her life. It couldn't be through. She knew that she would make another one sooner or later, another bad drawing, and need a place to put it. She also knew that some times, her powers worked over a much further distance. They fluctuated lots and Kathy couldn't leave the box in case the horrors got out and...

"Well, I can't leave it here, can I?"

.

The pencil scraped against the page as a drawing was done. Kathy was sitting on her suitcases, waiting for the car coming to take her to the Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Tommy was posing in front of her as she drew a picture of him.

A week had passed since Kathy had made her decision. It had all been rushed and Kathy was rather glad it was. She hadn't had time to stop, think and come up with reasons that pointed towards her decision being the wrong one. She had had her last day at school the day before and, although she had had a few friends she had needed to say good bye to, she didn't feel like she had really felt anything behind.

"And you promise you won't forget me?" Tommy said, shifting around.

Kathy promised with a smile. She laughed a bit when she told Tommy that she was going to be returning for Christmas. Tommy frowned. He looked at a large series of folders, full of Kathy's drawings. He looked at the large crate and paused. Kathy frowned and pulled the blanket further over the crate.

Kathy turned her art book around and showed it to Tommy. The six year old smiled. He took the drawing. He ripped it out, gently and handed it to Kathy.

"Can you keep him with Danny?" Tommy asked.

He knew about Danny. He had spent many hours with Danny and Kathy, playing games and having fun. Tommy looked up to Danny. He looked up to most of Kathy's drawings if they were good. There had been a girl called Jane who Tommy had become a very good friend with and Jane was often brought to life so Tommy could spend time with the girl who was three years his senior.

"I'll miss you, Kathy. I'll miss Danny and Jane and the other people." Tommy said.

"I'm going to miss you, Tommy." Kathy said, pulling Tommy into a strong hug.

She was kneeling down and her chin was resting on her younger brother's shoulder. Tommy burrowed his head into her jacket and under her hood, searching for the warmth there. Kathy rubbed circled in his back, being careful not to crumple the drawing.

A cough caused the two siblings to break apart. Kathy looked up at her father. Her father was, if Kathy had suspected right, a mutant, a low level one at least. She was pretty sure that she had got the powers from him. It meant Tommy might be a mutant, not that she wanted him to know that there was even a chance.

Her father told her that the car would be there again second.

"Have you got everything?"

Kathy nodded. Her father noticed the box. He frowned and asked her why she hadn't destroyed it by then. Kathy didn't answer. She reached up to the collar of her t-shirt and checked her key was still there. She had worn it so much it felt strange when there wasn't the slight weight on the back of her neck or the thumping of the key just below her neckline.

"I have everything I need." Kathy told him. "And everything I want."

She slipped the drawing of Tommy into a folder and slipped away her art book. She looked at her father and Tommy.

"Probably be a lot easier for everyone when I'm gone."

"Quieter at night." Kathy's father remarked with a weak smile.

He sighed and took Kathy's hand. He told her to bring Danny out. She picked out the piece of paper with Danny on and put it down. She didn't even need to point at it before the paper began to glow with a pinkish glow and a hand reached out. Then more and more came, forming above the piece of paper until Danny was standing there.

"Keep her safe, okay, Danny? You know that if anything happens to her, she won't be able to bring you out any more. Or I won't let her." Kathy's father promised.

Danny nodded and looked at Kathy. He was out nearly every day and had been out every day that week. He had helped Kathy pack and spent time with the family while they had been saying good bye. It had been very sudden that the eldest child was leaving but it had to happen.

.

Danny was in his drawing by the time Scott had knocked on the door. Kathy had just slipped away the drawing when her father went to let him in. Scott studied Kathy from behind his red lenses. Kathy was dressed in a casual jacket and a set of jeans. Scott looked a bit smarter but he was still rather casual. He gave Kathy an acknowledging nod.

"Mr Hunter, could you help me take Kathy's bags to the car? She might need to have some time to say goodbye." Scott said.

The girl's father nodded and Kathy turned to Tommy. She asked him to get her mother. Kathy was left standing in the hallway. She turned to look at her retreating brother and sighed. She wasn't sure what to do. She couldn't tell if she wanted to go or not. What Danny had said about the box still danced around in her mind.

"Any where we shouldn't take her?" Scott asked, looking at the girl as he returned to get another suitcase to take out to the car.

Kathy's father smirked and he nodded towards his daughter. Kathy began to list places: art galleries, museums, old houses and art schools. Scott nodded, taking every in his stride, and Kathy turned towards Tommy who was approaching with her mother. She pulled her mother into a strong hug and sighed.

"I'm going to miss you, sweetie." Maria said with a weak smile.

Kathy pulled back and looked at her mother. She could see tears in her mother's pure blue eyes and felt her mother's hands on her cheeks. Her mum had been there for her through lots. Her mum had been the first person to realise Kathy had powers, the first person who had realised some of Kathy's drawings could turn bad and the first person who had even considered that Kathy could be a mutant. Kathy couldn't bare to think about what situation she would be in without her mother.

"Now you keep safe and you keep Danny safe and... You come back for every holiday and you have to call once every week and you make sure..."

"Mum, I'll be fine." Kathy said.

She held out the key to show her mother with a trembling smile. Her mother nodded and told her that she knew what to do. She kissed her daughter's forehead after bowing it towards her.

Scott watched the scene from behind his red lenses. He watched as the teenager turned to her father and said a lot quicker goodbye. Then she turned to Tommy. She pulled him into a hug and kissed his forehead.

"Be good and if you start... If you end up like me, I expect to see you joining me in this new school." Kathy said with a smile.

Then she turned to Scott. He could see tears in her eyes and a forced smile on her lips but he took in her nod and her willingness to go. He nodded back and opened the door.

.

Scott had been very surprised to see the girl hadn't waved at her parents. He had occasionally had to go and collect new pupils but Kathy was rather different. She had sat down and reached around her neck, pulling out a thin tube of metal that Scott realised was a key.

"Nice car." Kathy remarked after they had left her home city.

Scott paused and offered her a silent answer. Kathy sighed and looked down at the key. She slipped it away and studied the countryside.

"So what are your powers? Because Charles is a telepath and I... I bring art to life, I suppose. So what do you do?"

Scott paused and smirked slightly. He placed a cup on the side and pulled the car over, making sure he wasn't going to crash. He raised his glasses when he was sure he would hit the cup. A hole was burnt straight through the card of the coffee cup and Kathy's eyes widened. She grinned.

"So, what is the school like?"

.

The mansion was amazing. It was amazing and dark and mysterious and open and... As Scott drove down the long gravel driveway, Kathy couldn't help but gasp. She could see teenagers and even younger children running around in large rolling lawns. Perfectly clipped hedges were lining the grounds and at least two sports courts fenced off. There were some pupils with different coloured skin and some with even more limbs. There was an archery competition going on by one side and a group of people were training in self defence with a man with black hair that seemed to be spiked into two points, one on each side.

The actual mansion drew Kathy's eyes. It was a neo-classical home made with red brick. The windows were large and made with white frames. Pupils looked down at Kathy as she climbed out of the car and looked around.

"I'm going to put this in the garage." Scott said, looking at Kathy.

He looked around for a few seconds and then called over a rather tall, strong young man. He looked a few years older than Kathy and smiled at her happily.

"Can you take Kathy's luggage inside?" Scott asked. "And then take her to see Mr Xavier?"

"Yes, Mr Summers." the young man said and picked up the bags from the boot.

Kathy could tell the young man had super strength as he lead the way into the mansion.

.

Kathy's luggage was piled up outside Charles' office. He was inside, talking to someone, and Kathy stood outside, knocking. Charles told whoever who was in there that they could continue with their discussion the next day. Kathy went to open the door for the figure but they simply disappeared. Kathy blinked for a few seconds and frowned.

"Teleporter?" she asked after a few seconds.

Charles nodded with a smile. Kathy wasn't sure if she was ever going to get used to the sudden influx of mutants in her life.

She slipped into the room and studied Charles as he offered her a seat. His office was liked the rest of the mansion. It had an old and homely feel but at the same time had very modern ideals that Kathy couldn't help but pick up on. She slipped into a large black leather arm chair next to a black leather fainting couch. She studied Charles as he sat at his large dark wood desk and wondered if he was reading her mind.

_YOU ARE CORRECT._ Charles' kind voice announced in Kathy's head.

Kathy jumped not used to having her thoughts suddenly intruded. She looked down at the green carpet on the floor and asked how Charles knew that she was a mutant.

"We have a machine that allows a telepath to pick up brainwaves from all around the world. It is called Cerebro. I was using the machine when I picked up on a very troubled mental signature."

"I get nightmares." Kathy admitted slowly, choosing her words deliberately.

She didn't like to talk about the box. She was sure Charles at least had some idea of it but she also wanted to pretend that she still had some control over what happened surrounding the crate.

"And I completely understand." Charles said. "I can't give you a tour right now. How would you feel about having a tour in the morning and then going straight into lessons?"

Kathy told him she would be fine but she was sure her mouth was dried as she tried to speak.

"You should go to your room and get unpacked. Your room mate is currently in lessons and I believe she will be coming to bed late. It will give you some time to get your bearings."

The teenager nodded and asked if she should go. Charles nodded.

.

It was another person's room. That was the first thing Kathy thought. The room belonged to someone else.

There were two beds in the room. Both were neatly made but one, the one just under the window so you could watch the sky if you lay on your side, was a bit messier than the other. A framed picture of somewhere in London (Kathy guessed) was hanging on the wall and depicted a young couple. Both were smiling and the woman had dark red hair. Kathy walked towards the picture and suddenly felt very alone. She had no idea who the woman was and it felt very strange. There was a wardrobe next to the bed and a set of draws that were littered with random objects from lots of different places. Kathy couldn't understand many of them and why they were there but she could sense each had a little story behind them.

The room was almost completely in half. One half was clearly used but the half near the door, the half Kathy would be getting, looked empty and soulless.

Kathy missed her own room. She missed the desk she drew at and the wardrobe that had pretty much become an art gallery for her drawings.

She sat down on the bed, staring at her luggage and it felt very quiet. She hadn't heard anyone move her luggage upstairs and she couldn't hear anyone. She had been lead upstairs by an older student but he had quickly disappeared afterwards. There wasn't the creak of springs from the mattress or the way the old wood of the bed clunked a bit when she moved. She got up and reached down, picking up a folder that had been placed on the top of her luggage. She lifted it and dropped it, staring at what had been underneath.

The box had been there. Kathy took a deep breath. She hadn't thought about it before but there were very little places she could put the box. She didn't want people to know about what happened and if the box, if the things inside it, began to call out again, then... Kathy wasn't sure what she would do if lots of people knew. Her parents were aware of one or two drawings, not fifty-six. Tommy wasn't aware of a single one.

She touched the wood of the box and then pulled back at if it had bitten her. She reached down once more. Her hands closed around it. A deep breath escaped her mouth as she relaxed into the silence that was coming from it. She lifted the box so she could move it and then...

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

A noise from inside the box. Something so small and easily dismissed.

Scrape.

Movement.

Kathy dropped the box and listened to the thud. She raced over to the bed and pulled off the covers, covering the box as it lay on its side in the centre of the room. With shaking hands, she opened the folder she had been after and two figures appeared in the room.

Danny was standing over her, offering her his hand and help to stand. The drawing of Tommy was looking around, shocked for a few moments. Danny helped Kathy up and studied the pile of covers. He told her to take a deep breath as he walked towards it.

"Kathy, they only get out when you panic, when you're scared. Calm down and we'll put the box in the wardrobe where they can't get you."

Danny scooped up the covers and the box with ease. Kathy opened the doors to the empty wardrobe and let Danny put the box in. He freed the box from the covers and then replaced the covers back on the bed in a heap. A smile crossed his face.

"See, nothing is wrong." he remarked.

Kathy nodded and calmed down, joining Danny on the bed. Danny smiled at her as they sat there. He promised he would help her with the rest of the luggage after she had calmed down.

"Do they do that, all the time?"

"You know full well they're only real when you're nervous. You can't control it when you're like that. At least it helps us sort the good from the bad."

Kathy looked at the six year old boy standing in her room. She watched with a smile as joy at being real lit the boy's eyes. He looked exactly like her little brother but she knew that they could be very different people. She asked the boy what his name was. Some times she named the drawings. Like she named Danny after a boy she dreamed about frequently. They acted the same and... Dream Danny had a British accent while Danny had an accent that Kathy was sure came from somewhere near New York. He was one of the few people she had managed to predict the personality of.

Anyway, most of the drawings Kathy didn't name. She let the drawings name themselves.

"My name is Vincent." the boy announced with a grin.

Back when she had been younger, when her powers had just started out, Kathy had wondered why even pencil sketches gained colour when she made them real. She wasn't exactly sure but Vincent was an exact copy of Tommy except for one detail. His eyes shone brown instead of blue.

"We should unpack." Danny said with a sigh. "Vincent, do you want to help?"

The little boy nodded and began to go through the boxes. Kathy stayed sitting on the bed.

"Do you think they'll except you two? Well, any of my drawings? You're not exactly human."

"Neither are you." Danny countered.

He offered Kathy his compassionate smile and told her that they would be fine.

Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Here we go! Second chapter. Still don't own X-men.

Special thanks to HallowThorn, debatable-cerealkiller, PrincessAnime8, bubblestaylor and one of my friends from school (dudeeee) for your reviews!

Enjoy!

When Kathy woke up, she realised the room was empty apart from her. The other bed was messy. It hadn't been remade since Kathy had seen it the day before but it was clear someone had slept in it.

Kathy had almost wanted to meet her room mate. She got up from her covers and caught sight of her room mate's clock. She saw that it was eight in the morning and she realised after a beat that it was a Sunday.

She looked down at the drawing of Danny that was on the desk. Vincent was with him. Kathy managed a smile at the two of them. She took a deep breath and sighed. She opened the wardrobe after steeling herself.

A wall of fabric separated Kathy from the box. She opened parted the wall and looked at the box. She couldn't hear anything coming from there. A thin smile crossed her lips and she grabbed the clothes she needed. She closed the fabric wall and decided to get dressed.

.

There was a boy Kathy's age waiting by Charles' office. Kathy had remembered the way almost completely by herself but she had needed to get directions on the last leg of the journey.

_NATHANIEL WILL GIVE YOU THE TOUR._ Charles' voice in Kathy's head said.

Kathy nodded and studied the boy with a shy smile. She took in every inch of his face in delicate detail. He wasn't really a boy. He was a young man who had to be at least a year older than Kathy. He had shining hazel eyes which looked down at Kathy warmly. He had a mop of very dark, almost black brown hair. He smiled welcomingly at Kathy and said he was going to show her around.

Kathy nodded nervously but felt at ease by the young man's disarming nature.

"Hey, I'm Nathaniel Goldhawk."

"Kathy." Kathy said, offering her hand to him.

She took it back when she realised that Nathaniel wasn't the sort of person who shook hands. She slipped it into her hair and hoped it looked casual.

"Short for Katherine?" Nathaniel asked as he began to lead the way through the corridors.

Kathy shook her head but followed him.

.

Nathaniel seemed to be very casual. He lead the way through twisting corridors and past crowds of teenagers and children without slowing his pace. Kathy, shorter than him, had to keep a quick pace so she could hear him.

"If you're into sports, beautiful, then we've got basketball courts and fields and sports clubs and..."

"Can you stop calling me that?" Kathy asked as Nathaniel began to go up the stairs.

He stopped by a window and looked out over a basketball court. Lots of rather tall teenagers were playing around. They were all clearly mutants but none of them were using their powers. It seemed to be a rule of their make-shift game.

"Calling you what?" Nathaniel asked, widening his hazel eyes innocently.

Kathy told him that he needed to stop calling her beautiful. Nathaniel's smile fell for the first time since Kathy had met him. She turned to look out over the basketball court once again, feeling suddenly awkward.

"Your boyfriend wouldn't be happy?" Nathaniel suggested.

"No, Nathaniel just... I don't have a boyfriend but I just feel kinda awkward about it." Kathy said.

Nathaniel paused for a few seconds and then looked at Kathy. He told her that maybe it was for the best. He added that had did have a girlfriend. Kathy smirked at the window.

"And call me Nathan." he said.

Kathy asked him to show her the class rooms. Nathan's smile returned and he lead the way towards the classrooms.

.

"So there's science and there's the gym and there's languages and there's counselling and..."

Nathan was giving Kathy the shortest tour of a school that she had ever experienced. He was just pointing to doors or even random corridors. It was a maze of old fashioned corridors and large wooden staircases. Kathy couldn't quite understand the layout of the school.

"You know what? I'll find my way around the school later." Kathy said, already planning to get up one night an explore with Danny and, maybe if she liked him, Vincent.

Nathan turned to Kathy.

"So should I take you to your lesson or...?"

Kathy didn't really like the idea of going to a lesson. She decided to do something that anywhere else would seem completely insane.

"Not wanting to seem rude or anything but..." she trailed off.

She wasn't sure what the manners were involving powers at the school. She guessed they were accepted but, if there were people like her (people who didn't always like their powers) in the school, then maybe asking about them was wrong.

"What do you mean?"

Kathy took a deep breath and decided to just go for it.

"What powers do you have?"

Nathan paused for a few seconds. Kathy felt a wave of guilt as she thought that maybe it had been rude and that she had lost her only friend.

"I have light manipulation." Nathan said with a smile.

He paused and took in Kathy's confused look at him. He held out his hand and then a small glow erupted from it. Kathy stared in awe. The light grew and then it suddenly went out.

"I can make light and I can bend it around objects like this..."

Nathaniel began to fade. Kathy stared. He had become invisible.

"Whoa." Kathy said with an impressed grin.

Nathan reappeared again and crossed his arms. He smiled and told Kathy that she had to show him her powers. Kathy wasn't sure what she was meant to do. She eyed the corridor for some art she could bring to life. There was a portrait of a man on one side but she didn't like to bring people to life until she was alone so she could make sure the person was good. She didn't like people knowing the bad she created.

Her eyes fell upon another picture and grinned slightly. Branches from a tree began to burst from a painting and across the empty corridor. Kathy felt a large sense of release. Her nervousness suddenly disappeared. She smiled with the branches and then decided that she had to send them back. They disappeared back into the painting.

Kathy turned back to Nathan nervously. The young man was standing there with amazement in his eyes. Slowly, the corners of his mouth pulled up in a smile.

"What do you call it? Art manipulation? Design control?"

Kathy frowned. She looked down at the floor and realised she had never given it a name. In her mind, a name made it real and full. Part of her didn't want to name it.

"It's just my power." Kathy admitted nervously.

Nathaniel nodded and Kathy could tell he thought it was a bit strange. She bit her lip and asked to be taken to her lesson. Nathan nodded and began to lead the way down the corridor.

.

Nathaniel held open the door to Kathy's class.

"Welcome to history, Kathy, with Mr Logan."

The young man looked for someone in the class.

"Hey beautiful." he said to whoever he had been searching for and then nodded at the teacher.

Kathy walked slowly inside. She looked around. She studied each face with her keen eyes and took in every alien contour that each one of her classmates had. One had four eyes, another two mouths. One even had tentacles.

There were a handful of people who looked human but Kathy assumed they were mutants. The teacher had black hair which was spiked into two points. He had a five o'clock shadow on his square jaw. Kathy recognised him as the man running self-defence classes the day before.

Kathy was left standing in front of the class, staring at the teacher. He didn't look like he cared what his class was up to but they seemed to be working well.

"There's a desk next to Rosa." the teacher, Mr Logan, said.

Unsure of who he meant, Kathy scanned the seats. Mr Logan got up and pointed Kathy towards a girl with waist length dark red hair littered with gentle waves. Her eyes were a deep green with shining silver flecks and she smiled at Kathy and offered her a wave.

Kathy smiled and slipped into the seat next to Rosa. She looked at Rosa and made a connection.

"Are you my room mate?" she asked.

Rosa nodded and smirked. She told Kathy she had seen her before. Kathy nodded slowly. She looked down at Rosa's work and studied the book. The lesson was clearly about the American Civil War and Rosa had got slightly distracted. Doodles were decorating the corners of the girl's page. They were drawings of stick fingers and roughly drawn animals.

"So, you're Rosa?" Kathy managed, feeling nervous.

"My name is Skye Rosabella Whitescar but everyone calls me Rosa. Or Belle. But only Nathaniel calls me Belle." Rosa said.

"Kathy Hunter." Kathy replied with a smile.

She paused and remembered the boy who had given her the tour. She took it in and smiled.

Then Kathy became aware of the rest of the room. Although people were hiding it well, Kathy knew everyone was studying her, trying to work out her powers and what she was like. Even Mr Logan was looking over his book and studying Kathy. The girl began to play with her fingers. Rosa noticed that Kathy was getting nervous but there was little she could do.

And then there was a little voice from below. Kathy looked down at the desk and then her eyes rolled onto Rosa's books. The doodles were gone. Rosa studied the table and the little stick figures who were playing around with her pencils and her book. Two were on one of her pencils, rolling over the table top.

"So this is your power?" Rosa murmured in awe of the little figures.

One of the little animals leapt off Rosa's desk and someone saw it. They mistook it for a mouse and screamed. Kathy bit her lip, biting back some laughter. Rosa smirked as both girls stood up. Kathy began to get carried away as the animals and figures grew. The animals, a pig and a bird, lit up with colours and began to make their way around the room, hitting into chairs and tables, knocking into the pupils as they stood up. The four stick figures were the size of ten year olds and running around still in stick figure form. They were leaping onto chairs and laughing to each other.

Mr Logan got to his feet and surveyed the classroom and the chaos. He glared at Kathy who's nervousness got the better of her and the stick children grew a bit.

Laughter was filling the room and Rosa pointed up to the ceiling. The air swirled into dark clouds above them and Kathy looked up, unsure what was happening. Suddenly it began to snow. Gentle flakes drifted down from the swollen grey cloud and Kathy looked at Rosa.

She tried to put a name to the power to sound like she wasn't too new to the world of powers but she simply couldn't.

"You control the weather?" Kathy gasped as she watched the friend's dark hair become littered with white shards.

Rosa nodded.

"Rosa! Kid! Get over here." Mr Logan called.

Kathy looked in shock at the teacher. She focused for a few seconds and suddenly the stick figures and the animals were pulled into Rosa's book once more. They had changed positions into the ones they had taken when they had been pulled back in but at least they were away.

Rosa pointed upwards once again and raised her hand, opening it up. The clouds dispelled and Rosa began to walk over to the desk.

"Class dismissed." Mr Logan said.

Kathy and Rosa silently knew that they had to stay there. The teacher studied them both.

"New kid, bub?"

Mr Logan's eyes were fixed on Kathy for a few seconds and the girl gulped. She nodded nervously. There was a dark intensity in his eyes that drilled into Kathy. She noticed how Rosa seemed relaxed around Mr Logan but couldn't understand how.

"Mr Logan, I'm sorry, it's just my..."

"Powers went haywire? Happens a lot around here." the man said with a steady rhythm that suggested to Kathy it was a normal thing. "And it's just Logan."

Logan shifted his gaze onto Rosa. For a few moments something very close to a smile crossed his lips. Kathy noticed but said nothing.

"Aunty Storm was just telling me how good you've been, Rosa." Logan said.

Rosa rolled her eyes but smiled childishly. Logan looked down at the book he had been reading. He told the two that they had better go but they both needed to get their powers under control.

.

"Sometimes Logan's a lot worse but, since you got Mr Summers out of his hair for the whole of yesterday, I guess he went easy on you." Rosa said as she took a seat on one of the chairs in the library.

Kathy joined her with a smile. She was amazed by all of the books. Books had been something Kathy had always been able to handle, even after her powers. From what the teenager had worked out, her powers worked on the idea that the art work was the original and had been made through human contact with the medium. She couldn't bring things from photos, photocopies or prints to life which meant Kathy could let her emotions go wild while reading a book without fear that the villain would appear to attack her.

"Don't Scott and Logan get along?" Kathy asked.

Rosa shook her head and told Kathy that there was some form of competition between the two that the teenager didn't quite understand. Rosa produced a book and began to read but her focus kept getting drawn to the new girl who had taken a seat next to her.

"You've got more questions, haven't you?" Rosa said.

"Yeah." Kathy answered.

Rosa told Kathy that she could ask her anything she wanted. For a few seconds, Kathy hung back. She didn't want to ask a question that sounded stupid. After a beat, she asked her first question.

"Why do you have school on Sundays?" Kathy asked.

Rosa explained that the school days were a bit different in Xaiver's school. Normally classes took place during the week but sometimes a few of the teachers were off being part of a group called the X-Men and it meant they couldn't teach. Instead of having to find cover staff at such short notice, it was just decided that the lessons would be moved to the weekend or another free time.

"And who are the X-Men?" Kathy asked.

Rosa smiled. She slid the book across the table and got her friend to get up. Kathy looked at her in shock. They had only just got to the library and... Rosa was already going. With a slight grin, Kathy followed.

.

The girls stopped on a staircase near the front of school. Pupils were milling about, talking to each other in groups or hurrying to get to new places.

"The X-Men are a group of people who work in the school and fight evil."

"So they're superheroes?" Kathy interjected.

Rosa grinned at the term. In her mind it didn't really suit the teachers but she guessed that the staff could be referred to as superheroes if just in the broader sense of the word. She nodded and slipped down so she was sitting on a step and watching the world.

"They tend to fight this guy called Magneto and a group called the Brotherhood of Mutants because they try to convince mutants to use their powers to hurt humans and none of us want that."

Kathy took it all in. She had had to take in a lot in the past week and a day and she wanted to have some time to talk it through with Danny. However, she knew that there was a chance that her friendship with a drawing could be seen as a little weird even by people who were taught by superheroes and had powers themselves.

"So what were they up to that caused Logan to miss History?"

Rosa turned to Kathy and asked if Kathy knew about the Mutant Acknowledgement Act. Kathy knew about it. There was going to be a large international conference in a few weeks time known as MAA. It was going to be deciding on an international way of dealing with the 'Mutant threat' and one of the things up for debate was whether every child at the age of fifteen would be tested for even possibly holding a mutant gene and being monitored. Although it seemed radical, a few very important people were backing the proposal.

"They were stopping one of Magneto's thugs from attacking Howard Richardson."

Mr Richardson was a known backer for the idea of the tests. Rosa took in Kathy's shocked expression.

"Still, not all of the pupils here grow up to be X-Men."

"It would be fun though." Kathy said.

Impressed by her friend, Rosa smiled. She could tell Kathy actually believed it.

Then a young man ended up on the step above the two. He slipped between the two and put his arm around Rosa. Kathy looked back and frowned. She recognised the young man very quickly.

"Nathan?" he asked.

"Oh... Hey, Kathy. And hey, beautiful." Nathan said, turning to Rosa.

Kathy raised an eye brow and asked Nathan if he called everyone beautiful. The young man smirked and turned to Rosa.

"Well she is beautiful." Nathan said.

"Don't you think your girlfriend would mind?" Kathy asked.

Rosa leant forwards so she was looking at her friend. She told Kathy that she didn't mind.

"You're his girlfriend?" Kathy managed.

Rosa nodded. She pulled back and looked at Nathaniel. She told him that she didn't want him to try and flirt with every new girl. Kathy watched them with a smile. They seemed so at ease with each other. Although both had always seemed very casual, both had become even more relaxed.

Kathy took a deep breath and found herself thinking about Danny. She was suddenly missing him. There wasn't anything between them. Kathy had drawn him. He was her creation.

Then a hand landed on Kathy's shoulder. She looked up with a gasp and saw Danny was kneeling on the step above her.

"Kathy, you brought me out." Danny said.

Rosa and Nathaniel looked up at Danny. They both stood up and smiled at him.

"I see you've made another friend." Rosa said.

Kathy got to her feet and introduced Danny. She nervously said he was one of her drawings, hoping that the two didn't think it was too weird.

"Where was he?" Nathaniel asked, circling the drawing, looking around.

"Mine and Rosa's room." Kathy answered.

She batted Nathan's hands down to stop him from studying Danny. The young drawing was getting a bit flustered by the sudden attention.

"Your powers work over that distance?" Rosa exclaimed.

Kathy nodded and then shook her head. She told them that it mattered on what she was doing. She was able to bring Danny to life over a big distance because she could do it without thinking and had done it plenty of times before.

"So, you seem to be settling in well." Danny smiled. "Making friends already?"

Kathy nodded and looked at Rosa and Nathan. They were both staring at her and Danny. She wasn't sure if they thought it was weird or not.

"I've just had a great idea!" Rosa exclaimed. "We should go and see Auntie Ororo!"

"Why do we need to go and see Storm?" Nate asked.

Rosa rolled her eyes and reminded Nathaniel that her Aunt Ororo was in charge of who got into which lessons and handling the records of the pupils. The boy still looked rather confused and looked at Kathy and Danny who were just as confused.

"Lets just go!" Rosa cheered, grabbing Kathy and Danny by the arms and pulling them down the corridor.

Nathaniel followed them loyally.

.

Rosa and Nathaniel had found Ororo's office empty and had gone over to ask Scott, who they had seen in the corridors, where she had gone. Kathy and Danny were left standing in the corridor. They smiled at each other and then their smiles grew into large grins and then into giggles. They both tried to recover but they ended up giggle for quite a smile.

"This is better than your old school." Danny remarked with a relaxed smile. "You've don't have to be nervous all the time and the arts a lot better for when you do make it real and you don't even have to walk home."

"It's great. You have to admit that." Kathy said.

"We should so spend one night getting all the paintings to move slightly and see how long it takes people to notice." Danny smirked. "Remember when we did that at the art gallery? It was so much fun. Those security guards didn't know what hit them. They thought we had stolen all the paintings."

Kathy couldn't help but laugh as she remembered what had happened. She felt completely relaxed for the first time since she had come to the school. Then someone tapped Danny on the shoulder, distracting him from talking with Kathy. He turned and faced a teenaged girl with long black hair and green eyes. The girl may have been pretty but Danny couldn't quite tell due to the fact that she had so much makeup on her face. She had a group of similar girls following her and they studied Danny, slightly impressed by the handsome young man Kathy had drawn. The lead girl smiled at Danny and asked him if he was new. Danny nodded and asked the girl what her name was.

"I'm Vicky Seamore. I've got fire manipulation." she said. "I could show you around if..."

Then she noticed Kathy. She looked at the girl and asked Danny if Kathy was his girlfriend. Both blushed instantly. Kathy shook her head and Danny quickly said no. Kathy tried to explain but Vicky was already leading Danny off. She watched Danny go and studied Vicky. There had been girls like Vicky at Kathy's old school. They were the sort of girl who thought they were the most beautiful girl on the whole planet and that all boys would be lucky to have them. So Kathy decided to rescue Danny from the situation that was clearly causing Danny as much discomfort as it was making Kathy boil inside.

She brought Danny back into his picture and then sent him straight out again in her room. Vicky turned and looked at Kathy. The other girls were looking just as confused as Vicky.

"He's just disappeared."

"Um... Well..." Kathy said, shifting nervously. "Well, my powers are to bring drawings to life and Danny is not... Danny's one of my drawings so..."

Vicky's friends were beginning to laugh and Kathy blushed one again. Then Kathy realised that the girls weren't laughing at her but actually at Vicky for making what they must have considered as a rookie mistake.

Vicky flushed with anger and embarassment and she turned from Kathy with a growl. Kathy watched her go and then saw Danny running down the stairs to join her.

"Vic's not too bad once you get to know her but if you get on her bad side..." Rosa said, suddenly appearing on Kathy's side.

Kathy watched Vicky go and frowned. Deep down she knew that she didn't want to make any enemies.

"I've found my aunt. Hopefully, we can convince her to allow Danny to become a pupil at the school. I've heard this story about the boy who could make doubles of himself and him being allowed to let his doubles into lessons with him." Rosa said as they hurried off to find her aunt.

.

Ororo studied Danny while Kathy studied her. Kathy liked Ororo's hair colour and the keen eyes with which she examined the boy. The teacher looked at Danny with a smile and nodded.

"Why do you want Danny to join your classes?" the woman asked, studying both Kathy and Rosa.

Danny looked at Miss Stormy, as he had begun to call her, and asked her if she wanted him to list the reasons.

"Auntie Ororo, Kathy has only been here one day and I think that allowing Danny into lessons will help her settle in and well was give her an outlet for her powers." Rosa pleaded.

Ororo looked at Danny and sighed. She nodded and told them that Danny could go into lessons. She pulled out a slip and began to listen the teachers she would need to talk to.

"Skye, you and Nathaniel need to make sure Kathy and Danny get to lesson." Storm said, using Rosa's actual name.

The group turned to leave but then Ororo called Rosa back.

"Logan told me that your powers went haywire in his lesson. He thought you needed to have a training session with me once again." Storm said as the teenagers left.

Rosa looked at her aunt and sighed. She told her aunt the truth, that she had used her powers because she was worried that Kathy would get nervous about her own powers going haywire. Storm nodded at Rosa and told her she could go.

.

Kathy looked at Nathan as they waited outside. She asked how Ororo was Rosa's aunt. Nathan began to explain that Rosa's father was Ororo's brother, who had left when Rosa (or Belle as he called her) had been very young to protect her. He had left before Rosa had developed powers and Rosa had grown up in London with her mother. They had moved to America and were staying in a hotel when her mother had been murdered and Rosa had ended up living on the streets. She had been found by Logan and taken to the school where she stayed with her aunt.

Kathy took it all in and then asked Nathan where he was from. He slowly told her his story. He told her that his mum had died when he was very young. She had been killed for being a mutant. He was home-schooled by his dad and travelled the world. When his powers began to show, his father sent him off to the school.

Rosa walked out of the room and looked at them. She smiled and asked them what they were going to do.

"There's something that I need to do."

.

Nathaniel stopped at the door to Rosa and Kathy's room. He told them that boys weren't allowed in girl's rooms but soon followed when Kathy brought Vincent out of his drawing.

The six year old was startled by the idea that Kathy had so suddenly welcomed two people into the big secret.

"He's a drawing of my little brother." Kathy said, slowly, choosing her words correctly.

She knew she had to tell Rosa about all of her drawings, not just the good ones. If Rosa was going to be her room mate, it wouldn't be fair for her to wake up one night with the box calling out.

"He's cute." Nathaniel remarked. "What's his name?"

Kathy introduced Vincent to her friends and vice versa. Then Danny, knowing what Kathy was about to do, opened the wardrobe and pulled out of the box. He looked at Kathy and told her to stay calm. Kathy nodded and slipped the string and the key from around her neck. She slid the key into the lock and took a deep breath. Rosa and Nathaniel could tell their friend was scared but they couldn't work out why. They watched as she turned the key and opened the lid.

They saw the marks in the wood and the drawings inside. Kathy bit her lip. The clown was closer than he had ever been before.

"I can't control what my drawings do. I can't always control when they came out – like you saw with Danny. Normally I can but..." Kathy said, slowly. "This is where the bad drawings go. I put them into this box if they try to hurt me or anyone else and they can't get out even when I lose control of my powers."

Rosa and Nathan looked at each other and moved closer. Rosa asked if she could reach into the box and got a nod from Kathy. She picked up some of the drawings and began to go through them.

"We can't destroy them. From the moment I brought them to life, destroying the picture would be murder. So I keep them in here."

Rosa took in each of the drawings. There were drawings of people who could be seen as normal but they were glaring and sneering. They looked like they were some form of predator.

"There are safer places you could put them." Rosa told her friend.

"There's the vaults and there are cells and..." Nathan listed.

Kathy looked at Vincent and then at the others. She was nervous that she might make the six year old scared of the drawings of even of her.

"These people they're horrible. They want to kill. I don't know why because I don't want anyone to die but... They're... They are the most dangerous things I have ever encountered. If they got out, everyone in this school will be in danger." Kathy said.

Nathan dropped the papers he was holding and Kathy quickly collected them up and put them in the box. Rosa handed her back the other ones and Kathy locked the box. She slipped the key back around her neck and stood up.

"And that's where they're going to stay." Kathy said.

Nathan looked at the time. He smiled and told them that it was tea time. They all went to leave but Danny almost collided with Rosa in the doorway.

Rosa gasped in horror as she looked at Danny. His eyes had suddenly clouded over and Rosa watched in horror as a trickle of blood began to trickle down from his mouth. Rosa pulled back and looked away.

Then Danny returned to normal. It was a sudden shifting and Rosa had to blink to be sure it was happening. She stared at the young man and then looked away once more, casting her eyes out of the window to the sun and the calm outside. When she looked back, Danny was still Danny. He was still fine.

"Rosa, is everything alright?" Kathy asked, nervously, looking back.

Rosa nodded with a smile but something began to pull at her from the back of her mind. They went down to tea.


	3. Chapter 3

Hi, here is chapter three. Although this chapter is slow, in the next chapter things start hotting up.

I don't own the X-men.

.

It was night time. Rosa was curled up on her bed, unable to sleep. There were noises coming from the box and Kathy kept moaning in her sleep.

Only hours earlier, Rosa had been sitting at the tea table with Kathy, Nathan and Danny. They had talked about normal things from their favourite films to what they did for their last birthdays. Kathy had smiled and laughed as she had watched Vincent play with some of the younger kids of the school.

Those memories seemed like a life time ago.

"Little Kathy?" a voice called from the box. "Little Kathy? We're coming for you, Kathy."

Rosa took a deep breath and decided to try something.

"Shut up!" she shouted at the box.

There was a pause, a silence and Rosa thought it had ended. She moved into a lying position and pulled her cover up to her chin.

"You're the girl she was showing us to."

Rosa's heart stopped. The creatures could hear her. The creatures knew she was there. She fought to stay calm and stay silent.

"First time as well. What's your name, girlie?"

Rosa kept quiet. She hoped that the creature, the clown who was now menacing her when she closed her eyes, would forget about her.

"What did you have nightmares about when you were a child? Was it clowns? Was it me?"

Rosa paused and lifted her hand to her forehead. She was slightly telepathic and she really wanted Kathy to wake up and close the creatures away. She kept thinking for Kathy to wake up, mentally shouting the girl's name.

Suddenly Kathy threw herself into a sitting position. She looked about in terror and then saw Rosa. She heard the creature and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Soon the voices stopped and the room was in silence. She turned to Rosa and gasped.

"I am so sorry." Kathy said.

Rosa smiled and moved over to Kathy's bed. Kathy shifted nervously.

"It's okay." Rosa told her.

Kathy shook her head and muttered about how much of a bad room mate she was. They sat there in silence and then Rosa had an idea. She stood up and moved to put her dressing gown on. Kathy watched her and then frowned.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"We're going to the After-day club."

"The what?" Kathy exclaimed, standing up and looking at Rosa.

Rosa picked up Kathy's dressing gown and threw it at her. Kathy caught it and pulled it on, caught up in the moment. Rosa smiled and told Kathy to bring Danny out.

Danny appeared in the room. He watched as Rosa went to leave.

"Where are we going?"

"The After-day club. Kathy's creatures kept me up and she's panicking so we're going to see hang out downstairs."

"What's the After-day club?" Danny asked.

"It's like an after school club but it's for people who can't sleep."

Kathy looked at Rosa for a few seconds. Kathy wanted to do something. She couldn't bare the idea that she would fall asleep and the creatures would start calling to Rosa.

"You never know, you might enjoy it." Danny reasoned, knowing Kathy was really tempted.

She turned to Rosa and nodded. Rosa grinned and walked out of the room.

"You can bring Vincent if you want. They're be more little kids for him to play with." she called back.

Kathy rolled her eyes but when she stopped they landed on Vincent.

"Hey." she said, smiling.

She couldn't remember bringing Vincent out of the drawing but she had done it so many times with Danny, she just guessed it was second nature to make people appear just by thinking off them. Vincent went down the corridor, following Rosa. Danny smirked and grabbed Kathy by the hand, running to keep up.

.

Kathy had expected the teenagers to have made some attempt at staying quiet in the After-day club. In fact, the way the pupils acted, they made it seem like it was just a quiet day at school. The lights were on and there was laughter and talking at normal levels. They were still playing games in the games room and there were little kids watching telly. A handful of older kids were talking in the kitchen, with drinks of soda. Kathy watched them for a few seconds and noticed that one of the older boys just had to blow on the sodas to chill them.

She noticed that Rosa had wondered off to a sofa area and picked up a book. Rosa began to read it as Kathy slipped into the seat next to her. Vincent was about to go off and play with some other kids but he got distracted by Danny who had some how managed to collect three chilled sodas. Rosa didn't look up from her book to realise that she was the only one who had been left out.

"So this is just..." Kathy began, watching as a couple of kids who looked roughly ten, played a game of table football.

"Kids have nightmares all the time – especially here." a voice said from behind them.

All of them, even Rosa, looked for the source of the voice. A series of glowing dots shone back at them.

"Here we are, Zoe, back at the club. Better go and play." the voice said.

A little girl with coppery hair rushed forwards. She looked about Vincent's age. Vincent looked tempted to play with her but he stayed to watch the approaching owner of the voice.

"His freckles are glowing!" Vincent gasped, shocked.

The owner of the bright white freckles and the voice walked forwards and bounded the sofa, landing between Rosa and Kathy.

"Zach!" Rosa protested, shuffling away.

Kathy took in the young man. He looked the same age as Nathan, just a bit older than Rosa and Kathy. He had electric blue eyes that were almost glowing like the splattering of freckles over Zach's nose. He was tall and had a mess of white hair.

"New kids?" he asked, fidgeting slightly.

He studied Kathy for a few seconds and she realised that the only bit of skin he had uncovered was his face. His hands were in gloves that disappeared into the long sleeves of his pyjama top and his feet were tucked into large slippers.

"Yeah. This is Kathy. That's Danny. The little one is Vincent." Rosa said to Zach, slipping her book away.

She knew that, with Zach's interruption, she wasn't going to get a chance to read it. She turned to Kathy and introduced Zach by saying his real name was Isaac Hunter.

"My last name's Hunter!" Kathy exclaimed.

Zach's blue eyes widened.

"Just to check, we're not related, are we? Because I forgot about this cousin I had once and she... What did she do? Um... It doesn't matter."

Kathy told Zach she didn't think they were related. Vincent was staring at Zach's freckles and reached forwards to touch them. Kathy batted his hand away.

"Don't do that, Tom... No, sorry, Vincent. It's rude." Kathy said, hoping that she hadn't upset either Zach or Vincent.

Vincent looked a bit upset but Zach nodded. He lent forwards and told Vincent it was okay but he wasn't really allowed to be touched. When he moved back, he continued with his constant fidgeting.

"I can't always control my powers so... I absorb energy. It's really hard to control and, sometimes, if I'm touched, I absorb the energy of a person and once comatosed his guy who wouldn't get off me and..."

Zach trailed off and watched Kathy, Danny and Vincent. He was very impressed that none of them went to shift away from him. Danny took a drink from his soda and looked at Zach.

"So the glowing freckles... Is that your powers?"

"Yeah. Freaks people out sometimes."

Vincent smiled an innocent smile.

"It looks cool." he said with a nod of approval.

Kathy felt the corners of her mouth pulling into a smile simply because it reminded her so much of her brother.

"So, how did you get the nickname Zach if your name is Isaac?" Danny asked.

Zach paused and shook his head. He said he had forgotten.

"It's a bit hard to keep things in my head. I've got so much rushing through me. That girl over there just texted her boyfriend. Someone upstairs just sent an email. Mr Summers just turned up the thermostat in his room. It's all in here," Zach said, tapping one of his temples. "And sometimes it becomes a bit of a mess."

Kathy could only begin to imagine what that felt like. She imagined how overwhelming it would be if she heard everything that her drawings said inside of her head and only she could hear it. She would have to deal with Danny and Vincent fighting the devils she drew and hear everything in her head even when she closed her eyes.

"So the little girl you were with – is she your sister?" Kathy asked.

Rosa got up to go and get herself a drink. Kathy watched her go as Zach answered.

"Zoe? No, she had a nightmare. I can't remember about what but it's understandable."

"Why?" Kathy asked.

She wanted to hear more. It was nice to know that she wasn't alone in her nightmares but she also felt very sorry for the other kids. Some of the kids who were up looked even younger than Vincent. Once Tommy had been attacked by one of her drawings. He hadn't worked out it had been a drawing but Kathy had taken it upon herself to deal with the nightmares that had come because of it.

"Because most of us have seen some horrible things or dealt with some horrible things or... Some of the kids at this school were hunted by anti-mutant groups, others were kicked out by their parents, others have seen people close to them being murdered, some have even been face to face with Magneto."

"Magneto?" Kathy breathed.

Even the word felt evil. She felt it was a word that should be spat with disgust. She seemed to remember the word from somewhere and then realised where it was.

"Rosa meantioned him earlier."

"Yesturday." Zach corrected with a nod at the clock that was hanging up nearby. "And Magneto is a criminal. He's a mutant who thinks that mutants should rule the world and that humanity should be wiped out but he's willing to destroy any mutant who doesn't agree with his ideals."

Zach paused to let it sink in and Kathy glanced at Danny and Vincent. Danny offered her a brave smile but Kathy suddenly felt very scared. If she was killed then it wasn't just her that died – Danny and Vincent were trapped in their drawings, essentially dead. (Not that Kathy thought she could survive either Danny or Vincent getting killed either. That would rip her apart.)

"My best mate, Rogue. She's like me. She absorbs energy, even powers, from people just by touching them. One day Magneto found out about this and realised she could power a machine for him and it didn't matter if the machine destroyed her in the process. The X-Men saved her but... He still did that. There's even rumours that he angled the bullet that hit Xaiver and that he assassinated JFK."

"Your joking, right?" Kathy exclaimed.

She heard Danny begin to explain to Vincent who JFK was. Rosa was approaching again with a bottle of cooled soda.

"Rosa, who killed JFK?"

Rosa's eyes widened and she looked from Zach to Kathy.

"You're telling them about Magneto?" she exclaimed.

Zach turned to Kathy with a nod and then forgot what point he had been proving and got distracted with getting his own drink. Rosa watched him go for a few seconds and then turned to Kathy, taking a sip from her soda.

"Magneto's a bad man. I don't mean to scare you Kathy but he's really messed some mutants up. If he takes an interest in your powers, especially with the drawings you've done, he might stop you from ever being able to control them. For all we know, he might be looking for a good weapon and your powers make you as good as any. If anyone who you even suspect might be working for Magneto..."

"What is she doing here?" a voice asked from behind them.

They all turned to see Vicky standing there in her dressing gown. She had two of her friends with her. Her eyes flicked to Danny for less than a second but the blush that filled her cheeks made it clear that she had made eye contact.

"There's multiplying." she sneered, looking at Vincent.

"Leave us alone, Vic." Rosa said. "Kathy doesn't want to deal with you and lackeys."

"They're not my lackeys." Vicky hissed.

Rosa rolled her eyes.  
>"Well they're lacking something, namely their brains." Rosa said.<p>

She turned to Kathy, Danny and Vincent and said it was time to go. Danny and Vincent got up first and then Kathy joined them.

.

"I don't like Vicky." Vincent said as they walked through the grounds at night.

He was wearing Kathy's dressing gown and it dragged over the grass. Rosa sighed and told Vincent that Vicky a bad person, just not a very nice one.

"I don't care." Vincent moaned.

They found a bench and sat down on it, staring up at the moon. Vincent didn't stare at first, looking at the others and then at the trees that rounded the garden.

"Hey, Zach!" he called when he saw Zach appeared from the tree line.

All the older children looked towards Zach and frowned.

"Weren't you inside?" Danny asked.

"I came to find you guys." Zach said.

He moved towards them.

"Vicky just got on Danny's nerves." Kathy said. "We came outside to avoid her."

Zach looked at Vincent and addressed him. Kathy and Rosa frowned but they let Zach get closer. Rosa slipped the label off her soda bottle and handed it to her. She asked Kathy to draw something and suggested it could be a weapon.

"Why a weapon?" Zach asked as Kathy held out her hand for Vincent to give her a pencil.

He found one in a pocket of her dressing gown and she began to draw. She drew out a basic sword. It wasn't one of the best drawings she had done but it was quick.

She held it up and beamed. She rested it against her knees and focused, drawing it out. Soon the sword was in her hands and she stood up, moving it around.

"Why do you need that?"

"Because Danny's the older one." Kathy said, studying the sword.

She moved the tip forwards and pressed it against Zach's neck.

"And you're not Zach."

Zach's electric eyes shifted to a yellowy-green and his skin turned blue. The white hair turned a coppery red.

"We caught you, Mystique."

She looked from teenager to teenager.

"Magneto is coming. He is looking for a weapon to help with the destruction of Howard Richardson and the mutant tests."

"If he's looking for a weapon, I just made one." Kathy remarked, letting the sword drop.

"You just became one." Mystique said.

"Rave- Mystique, what are you doing here?" a voice called.

They all turned to see Charles moving down the path. He looked from Mystique to the teenagers.

"Magneto is coming, Charles."

"He doesn't know of the powers of any of the children here. Why would he come?"

Mystique paused and turned towards Charles. Danny took the sword off Kathy and raised it between Mystique and Charles.

"Because he knows there are kids with powers. There's Rogue and Bobbie and... And the X-Men."

Pupils from the school were moving out and onto the grounds. They were watching the scene. Among them were Zach and Vicky. They watched as the events unfolded.

"Mystique, go. I will protect the pupils here." Charles said.

Logan had moved out and stood behind the group of teenagers, protectively. Kathy held out her hand for Vincent and smiled at him.

Mystique looked at them all for a few seconds and then moved away. Kathy turned to look at Charles and the rest of the school. She took a deep breath and took the sword off Danny. She picked up the soda bottle wrapper and held them in different hands. Then she clapped her hands, forcing the sword into the paper. She then held up the piece of paper and Zach began to clap. Then it spread to the rest of the school. Kathy smiled, feeling relaxed, but she noticed that Vicky wasn't clapping or quite as happy as the rest.

"I think it's time to sleep." Charles announced to the whole school.

With a wave of murmuring rising from the pupils, they slowly filed inside. Kathy, Danny and Rosa went to go in but Logan and Charles stopped them. Vincent hung back and there was a pause.  
>"Do you think Zach could take this kid to bed?" Logan asked.<p>

"He doesn't go to bed." Kathy said.

She looked at Vincent and sighed but the little boy shook his head.

"I'll go and wait in your room." Vincent said.

He darted off and they all watched him go. Kathy assured them all that he would be fine. The little boy turned back and waved when he reached the door. He disappeared inside and then Logan looked towards the group.

"Why were you out here?" Logan asked.

"We've already made enemies." Danny remarked. "And I think Mystique's the nicer one."  
>Rosa rolled her eyes but smiled at the comment.<p>

"They've gotten on the wrong side of Vicky Seamore. She's angry at them." Rosa answered.

"We could tell her to leave you alone." Charles said. "But..."

"We're fine." Danny said. "I'm more worried about Magneto. The blue woman said he was coming and I think we should evacuate the school."

"This is not how this works. If the pupils scatter, it'll be easier for Magneto to find any kid he's interested in." Charles said.

He sighed and shook his head. He told the teenagers that it was late and that he would see them in the office in the morning. Kathy nodded and headed towards the school. Rosa hung back for a bit and then looked at Charles and Logan. Danny was between the two and she felt tempted to tell them about seeing Danny coated in blood.

Danny moved towards Kathy and Rosa sighed, following them. Sometimes her powers went wrong and she saw things that weren't right, that she had made up. She hoped that the vision she had had of Danny had been just that.

.

"The morning sunlight burns away the fears of night like dew upon the grass." Danny remarked, throwing open the curtains, letting light flood into the room.

Kathy was still sleeping in her bed, curled up in the covers. Vincent was sitting on the floor, making a stack of colouring pencils on the floor. Rosa was sitting on her bed, head buried in a book.

"Kathy!" Danny shouted, leaping towards her bed and nudging her.

"Kathy, you're going to want to wake up. I can't stop Danny from speaking like a poet and it's driving me mad."

"He does that." Kathy murmured into her pillow. "He thinks it's something pleasant to wake up to."

"Have you told him it's not?" Rosa growled, looking up from her book at her friend.

"So many times." Kathy rolling over and throwing her pillow in Danny's direction.

"Mr Xaiver wanted to see you lot, remember?" he said. "In the morning, not the afternoon."

Kathy fell out of her bed and sighed. She knocked down the tower Vincent had built and apologised. She looked up at Danny and then at Rosa.

"We'd better go." Kathy told them.

Rosa nodded and slipped her book away with a yawn.

"Danny, Vincent, should you go?" Rosa asked.

"Might as well go and tell Mr Xavier that you two are coming." Danny said, leaving with Vincent.

They left and Kathy looked from Rosa to the desk. She had already begun drawing again and a wonderful detailed drawing of her room mate on her desk. She noticed there were a few letters on the table and could see one of them written in Danny's handwriting. She looked at it and picked up the letters underneath. There were two others, both Kathy assumed had been written by Rosa.

"Maybe I should take Jane out and... She could take Vincent to post the letters." Kathy mused, tossing the letters back onto the desk.

She looked over to the folders she had and opened them to the right page. Jane appeared in the room. The girl was nine and she had long naturally curling ginger hair. Her eyes where a bright blue and she smiled when she looked at Kathy. When she realised she was somewhere she didn't recognise and frowned.

"Jane, everything's alright. I was moved into a place where I can learn to control my powers. Danny has a new drawing I've done, his name's Vincent. He's like Tommy but... You should go and see him." Kathy said. "And you can post these letters to, please."

Kathy handed Jane the letters. She ran off with them and Rosa watched her go.

"Are all your drawings like family to you?" Rosa remarked. "Apart from the... Well, them."

She nodded towards the wardrobe and Kathy nodded towards her. Rosa sighed and they rushed around so they could get dressed.

.

Danny watched as Jane and Vincent went running off. He smiled as they went and then turned to the door to Mr Xavier's office. He knocked on the door and waited until Xavier called him in.

"Hello, Danny." Xavier said as he walked into the room.

He looked around the office and took in the books and the old fashioned furniture. Xavier offered him a seat with a nod and he moved towards it with a smile. He sat down.

"Hey, Mr Xavier." Danny smirked.

"Danny, I was wondering, and you do not have to feel obliged to answer this, what is it like? When Kathy sends you back into your drawing, what is it like? Are you conscious or...?"

Danny looked thoughtful for a few seconds and then nodded. He lent forwards and played carefully with his hands.

"It's like everything just goes white but I don't know it when it happens. I stop being there and when I start being here again I can only think of this white space."

Danny tapped his forehead.

"If I go anywhere, it's lost up here." Danny said. "And there are more important things happening out here for me to have time searching up here."

There was a knock on the door and Charles reached up to tap his forehead. Danny copied him with a smirk as Rosa and Kathy walked in. Charles shook his head when he noticed Danny was mimicing him.

"You wanted to talk to us?" Kathy said.

"Yes. I just wanted to see how Kathy was settling in. It's not normal for a pupil to be caught up in events like these so early on in their time here." Charles said.

"Everything is fine. Being a mutant has those side effects. I can handle a blue lady." Kathy smiled, brushing it off.

Charles smiled and asked if he could speak to Kathy alone.

Danny and Rosa nodded and left. Kathy watched them go and then looked at Charles.

"Ever since I picked up on you using Cerebrum, I've known you have lots of questions about your powers and very few people to turn to. There are many mutants I wish I can offer places to but when I found your mental signature and your need to talk..."

Kathy nodded slowly.

"Do your powers allow you to tell if I am a bad person?" Kathy asked.

"No, I..." Charles sighed. "Back years ago, I was friends with a man called Eric Lehnsherr. We were best friends."

"I've never heard of him." Kathy said.

Charles laughed slightly. There wasn't any happiness in his laugh however and Kathy could see sadness in his eyes.

"You have, Kathy. He now goes by the name of Magneto."

Kathy wasn't sure how to react. Charles looked at her.

"No, I can't always use my powers to judge character." Charles told her. "Why do you need to know?"

"Because I think I might be one." Kathy said, closing her eyes. "A bad person."

A silence drifted into the room. Kathy couldn't look at Charles but his eyes were fixed on her.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

The flood gates were pulled open and everything Kathy had to say came crashing out. She told Charles everything. He listened intently, hanging on her every word.

"So these creatures, people... Um bad drawings... Things you make, you think they mean you are a bad person?" Charles said.

He paused, thinking. He didn't think Kathy was a bad person. He had met bad people. He had dealt with bad people and Kathy was not a bad person.

"Does having a nightmare mean you're a bad person? These are just nightmares brought to life."

"But they're not meant to be nightmares!" Kathy moaned, looking straight at Charles. "Not meant to be bad!"

"Are any dreams meant to turn into nightmares?" Charles asked calmly.

There was a pause and Kathy looked from Charles to the door.

"I know you are a good person, Kathy. Think about Danny and Vincent and the other good drawings. A hundred drawings compared to one."

Kathy stood up and Charles watched her move towards the door. She looked back at him.

"There's been fifty-six." she informed him and then let the door close.

Charles watched her go and decided that he would have to deal with the drawings. He wanted to see them.

"When the time is right." he promised himself.

.

Vincent searched around the post that held the letterbox. Jane was hiding around the other side and he smiled as he searched for her. They had posted the letters and were playing happily.

Vincent laughed as he caught Jane's hand. Suddenly an arm held him back, lifted him up and began moving back. Vincent screamed, struggling.

"Danny, get off him." Rosa requested.

Vincent began to laugh, reassured that he was safe.

"We heard screaming." Nathan said, rushing over with Zach.

Jane explained that Danny and Vincent were playing around. Nathan moved forwards, putting an arm around Rosa.

"I heard what happened last night, beautiful. Please don't tell me that Magneto wants to take you from me." Nathan said with his usual smile.

Rosa, knowing how stories sometimes got changed through rumours, told him what had happened in as much detail as he could.

"We should go to lessons." Rosa said as she finished the story.

Danny, Vincent, Jane and Zach had been playing 'tag' with Danny picking up six year old Vincent every time the little boy was tagged, giving him a piggy-back ride and helping him catch someone else. The group were being careful not to catch Zach on his exposed skin as he darted around.

Suddenly an older child appeared. She had long dark hair with a few white strands in her fringe.

"Rogue!" Zach called, running up to his friend. "Want to play with us?"

"Just came to remind you guys that today is Monday." Rogue said. "It's a school day, so... Lessons."

The teenagers sighed and got up to go. Danny looked at Vincent and Jane and then at Rogue. He began to explain that they weren't official pupils. Rogue shook her head and smiled. She told Danny that if he could get the kids into Charles' lessons he would take care of them without Kathy needing to pull them back into their drawings.

"What lesson do I have first?" Zach asked.

"Art." came the answer from Rosa.

Zach nodded and hurried off. Rosa turned to Nathaniel with a smile.

"I wonder what lesson Kathy has first." Rosa said with a content smile.

.

"This isn't going to work." Kathy stated, looking at the door to the art room. "What happens if I get all nervous and...? You know what happened in Mr Logan's lesson, right?"

Charles had introduced Kathy to a red haired woman called Jean Grey. This woman had taken Kathy to the art room, not telling the teenager where they were heading.

"I am aware but how can you beat your fears if you don't even dare face them."

"Because there are going to be people in there and..."

As Kathy protested, Jean began to walk. Kathy followed so she could continue to protest to her. Suddenly she became aware she was in the art room.

"You tricked me." Kathy said, noticing that none of the art that was on the walls had come to life.

She smiled slightly to herself just as Danny walked in.

"You've got her calm in a room full of art. This is good." he remarked.

Kathy smiled but jumped slightly when a blue figure appeared right in front of her.

"Kurt," Jean began, "This is Kathy Hunter. This is Danny. They're new."

"I think you should know that I have powers that might affect the lesson." Kathy said. "Um... My powers are to bring art of life and..."

"Bringing art of life?" Kurt said, smiling at Kathy. "I am Kurt Wagner. I teach art at the school. May I see your powers?"

Kathy nodded and scanned the class. They were all working on their drawings. She saw Zach working in his art book. She moved towards him and snatched his art book from him, finding a drawing. There was a drawing of a fruit bowl in the book. Kathy smirked, reaching forwards and picking an apple out of the fruit bowl. She tossed the apple in the air and smiled at the impressed look of her teacher.

"So, Danny, Kathy, welcome to my class."

.

Danny, despite the fact he was a drawing, wasn't very good at the art himself. So he had taken to watching Kathy as she was drawing. Kathy was smiling and drawing. Danny had often watched Kathy draw and he enjoyed watching her. It was like watching a magic show.

"What are you drawing, Kath?" Danny asked, watching as she drew.

"I don't know. Just..."

"How about you draw someone." Danny said, smiling.

Kathy looked at him for a few seconds and then shook her head.

"I can't just draw someone. It's... What if..."

"Then draw a good person." Danny told Kathy.

She looked up into his eyes and saw the reassuring sparkle in them.

"You're a good person. You will draw a good person." Danny said as if it was the simplist thing in the world.

He touched Kathy's hand and then leant forwards to whisper in her ear the person he wanted her to draw.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"I know you're sure. Because it's quiet and the art is still in their drawings." Danny told her.

.

Kathy finished her drawing and showed it to Danny. He smiled at the lines in the drawing and the relaxed smile that had flooded onto Kathy face.

"Wolverine." he smirked, naming the drawing.

He tapped the art book Kathy had been given just above Wolverine's hair.

"See, good person."

He tapped Kathy on her forehead with a smile.

"Good person."

Danny looked away from Kathy and scanned the classroom. He smiled and nodded.

"You know, you made the right decision coming here."

"You made me make the right decision." Kathy smirked.


End file.
